Femme on Fire: Kate Nash

By
Vanessa ButlerMay 1, 2013

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It’s been a crazy couple of years for British singer Kate Nash. After releasing her latest album, Girl Talk, on her own record label, successfully selling out every single show of her U.S. tour and working with multiple charities like Because I Am a Girl and Plan USA, Nash is taking it all in stride. We caught up with Nash for our latest Femme on Fire to see what exactly makes this girl tick.

Playboy.com: So you’re finished the North American leg of your tour and just kicked off your U.K. stint. What was it like coming back to North America after not playing there for such a long time?

Nash: It was awesome; it was so nice to be welcomed back like that. The whole tour sold out completely, along with the few shows I did in New York. Just to feel that kind of support was awesome. You never know in a situation like this since it had been a couple of years, and especially coming back after putting out a new record on my own record label! It’s been kind of scary at times, and I think that it’s paying off, so it’s nice to see that.

Playboy.com: What’s your craziest story from the road?

Nash: I was in a town where I had really bad memories of being there, so I got kind of emotional. And my friends just joined me on the tour and they decided to go out and have a good night anyway at a pub and dance all night to make up for it. I got too drunk and came back to the hotel and there was this giant teddy bear behind the reception desk, and in a drunken stupor I jumped over the reception desk, grabbed it and flew back over and up to my hotel room. So I was lying on the bed taking a picture of me and the teddy bear, so I put my phone up and dropped the phone and it smashed my front teeth straight off. And immediately the woman from reception was at the door saying, “You have to give the bear back or I’m going to call the police.” So there I was, crying, because my teeth had fallen out and everyone was laughing at me because the whole situation was really stupid.

Playboy.com: For your latest album you disbanded from a major label and recorded in Echo Park. What has this whole experience been like for you?

Nash: Recording this album was the best experience of my life so far. It was really far away from reality. I had a lot of quite difficult life changes and struggles, and it was definitely a challenging year. But staying in a mansion and recording in Echo Park was really helpful in terms of a healing process. Just being able to throw out all of the past into this record was amazing. I worked with Tom Biller, who is one of my favorite humans and producers. He’s such a cool guy. And although I wrote the record before I got there, he had some great, fresh ideas that were very welcomed. And being in L.A. was really cool, I love it there. It’s a really fun, positive place. Looking back it really does seem like a dream. Literally the house had taxidermied tigers and bears and stuff. It was crazy!

Playboy.com: Were many people shocked with the direction this past album took?

Nash: A lot of people were. That’s one of the main things that people have talked about. I guess it doesn’t really feel different to me because I had always seen a progression from records one, two and three. Sometimes I do understand why people think that, but usually I think that people are just really stupid. It’s dumb to expect someone to be the same and look the same for seven years. It’s sort of weird that people think I’m going to be a teenager forever. I get that it’s different to people, but I think it’s important for artists to grow and change. I’ve always admired people like Madonna and Bowie that do their own thing all the time. That’s a really positive way to look at it.

Playboy.com: And you were actually able to crowd-fund, if I’m not mistaken, the album. Is that something you would do again?

Nash: Actually, I didn’t crowd-fund the record, I paid for it all myself. But then I got dropped from the label. So after that I turned to a pledge to garner a bit of support for getting the record preordered and showing that people actually had interest in it. That was kind of a weird experience, but it was a good way of communicating with fans.

Playboy.com: Do you enjoy being so connected with your fans?

Nash: I think it’s really important to use the social networks like that, I keep saying, because I was dropped, but if this happened to me ten years ago I don’t think I’d be in this position, whereas now, I can directly see where my fans are and tell them about stuff and communicate with them. Now they are the ones that are running the show instead of having to rely on a big company to put out. And it’s fun as well. I love sharing the silly fun; that side is fun too.

Playboy.com: **What’s the worst pickup line you’ve heard?**

*Nash: *I was in the ER, and since I have a heart condition I was strapped up to all of these machines. There was a guy beside me who was also there and was bleeding all over his face, and he turned to me and asked, “Do you come here often?” I just looked at him and said, “No, but you obviously do! Probably every Friday night.”